Auburn No. 1, SEC dominant in Top 16 bracket preview

With a month before Selection Sunday, the Division I Men's Basketball Committee unveiled its top 16 teams Saturday on the Bracket Preview Show, and the list was dominated by the Southeastern Conference, as expected.

Three of the top four seeds -- No. 1 Auburn, No. 2 Alabama, No. 3 Duke and No. 4 Florida -- are from the SEC, with conference members Tennessee and Texas A&M right behind them.

In all six teams in the top 10 are from the SEC with No. 10 Kentucky included.

"The narrative since the season began was how strong Southeastern Conference teams are, and that's reflective in this Top 16 reveal," said Bubba Cunningham, the committee chair and athletic director at North Carolina.

"While each team is evaluated independent of their conference affiliation, there's no escaping the fact that the league is on course for a historic season in terms of representation in the tournament, specifically the highly sought-after top 16 seeds. Having five of the top six teams being from one conference is equally impressive as it is unusual."

Auburn was selected as the No. 1 overall seed thanks to its 13 wins in 15 Quadrant 1 games, the nation's best.

Since the start of the bracket preview show in 2017, all four No. 1 seeds remained as No. 1 seeds just once -- 2023 -- in the NCAA Tournament. Six times, however, three of the early No. 1 seeds held that spot on Selection Sunday.

The committee's preview show has turned out to be remarkably accurate, with 84 percent of the teams landing on the top four lines in February staying there in March.

The committee placed the 16 teams into the four regions this way, with a team's overall seed in parentheses:

South

1. Auburn (1)

2. Texas A&M (6)

3. Wisconsin (11)

4. Texas Tech (13)

Midwest

1. Alabama (2)

2. Purdue (7)

3. Iowa St. (9)

4. Kansas (15)

West

1. Florida (4)

2. Houston (8)

3. Kentucky (10)

4. Michigan (14)

East

1. Duke (3)

2. Tennessee (5)

3. Arizona (12)

4. St. John's (16)

Cunningham said the process was a good walk-through for the committee, which will unveil the 68 seeded teams on March 16.

"With five first-year committee members, this was an important meeting, not only for the purpose of today's unveiling but also to educate them about how selecting, seeding and bracketing work," he said. "Going through this process will be valuable experience for them when we do it for real next month."

The tournament begins with the First Four in Dayton, Ohio, on March 18-19 and culminates with the Final Four on April 5 and 7 in San Antonio.

--Field Level Media